Beneath a cloudy sky, the 100,000 soldiers of the allied forces have been deployed in a battle formation, making it look like they are flooding the ground.
The ones squaring off against them are the Trident Principality's 30,000 soldiers. They have prepared for a defensive battle which is why they are secluding themselves in the capital city Trident, which is hidden behind the outer wall.
Based on the circumstances, if the Trident Principality were to lose this battle, they would immediately be cornered into a situation of near annihilation, but there was pretty much a reason for this.
It’s because the Trident Principality never thought that it would get attacked from within the human continent in the first place.
The Trident Principality, which exists as a shield in the anti-demon war on the human continent, is a country lacking any value and appeal so as to merit an attack in the eyes of the other human countries.
It’s not like it’s especially wealthy.
If forced to comment on it, you could say it was the best on the continent only in regards to the number of monsters in its territory.
It doesn’t have any special industry.
If forced to comment on this as well, you could say it is the top country in the continent only in terms of the amount of magic gems produced.
It is constantly exposed to the threat of monsters due to its location, it's the first country that receives damage if a war against the demons starts, and it will keep suffering damage until the very end. One could say, it was a country that drew the short end of the stick.
There’s no country that would consider something like expressly attacking a country which is in a position that makes one ask “For the Fatale-san from several generations ago to come here from the continent’s centre and found a country, is that guy an idiot?”
In a way you can also say that the allied forces, who are actually about to attack such a country, are a parade of retards from the continent's centre.
But then again condemning the participating soldiers and the governing body of each nation that sent out their troops might be slightly cruel.
That’s because the one who wished for this situation is the hero who is the human race's most supreme and strongest combat force.
With the situation developing in such manner, the various countries finally realized,
“This time’s hero is an utter fool."
But by the time they noticed that, it was already too late and the various countries, which were motivated by the hero, came to grips with the fact that it’s impossible for them to turn back.
This has resulted in them investing their power solely into the question of how to keep the damage to their own countries as small as possible in the future. Even the Trident Principality had seized information about these circumstances early on.
With just that, the Trident Principality’s side expects that the participating countries, apart from the Holy Kingdom, don’t want to pursue them too obstinately.
“Somehow I can understand their sentiments~”, Her Majesty Archduchess Fatale said.
“They probably lost their head, unable to think about matters calmly, after getting tossed into the festival called war with the arrival of the figurehead referred to as hero.”
As for Renya, he's on the verge of believing Isn’t your understanding of their matters far too kind?, but since it's the opinion of the highest authority in the Trident Principality, it’s not a situation where someone like Renya should interject.
As for such varied, troublesome matters, it’s probably best to leave all of it to the experts, Renya thinks.
Til the bitter end I’m just a swordsman, not a politician.
From Renya’s point of view, he considers the action of trying to somehow comprehend the strange, odd, mysterious world called politics as a complete waste of effort.
Even so, there are things he definitely understands.
Namely, that he has to defeat the hero as fast as possible in this war.
That alone will probably bring about the very best outcome that the current me can achieve. Renya turns his gaze towards the alliance swarming around on the ground while he securely stands on top of the outer wall that surrounds the city.
Next to him stood an armor while looking down below with a terrific expression as it crosses its arms in front of its chest with a deep crimson cloak spilling down along its back.
Reny wanted to interrogate it from where it got that cloak, but he leaves it alone as he doesn't deem such a matter to be of much importance.
Its imposing appearance of standing with both its feet set apart at the width of its shoulder caused it to have a protagonist-like presence for some reason. And even though it’s irrational, it scattered a sense of dignity around it as if forcibly transforming the people around it into support cast.
“Hey, you. The protagonist-like armor-san over there.” (Renya)
While wondering how to think about the fact that he is calling out to an armor, Renya started to talk with it, since there were no other soldiers in the vicinity.
The reason why there were no other soldiers around is because they all hated getting close to the armor's eerie aura.
Being asked by a soldier “Just what the hell is this far too ominous armor?”, Renya answered in desperation,
“It’s an iron golem.” (Renya)
Renya stated those words, which would probably be rejected by anyone with all their will power, with a clearly serious look.
At least an iron golem’s interior isn’t crammed with such a darkish something, and it also doesn’t do something like preparing its own cloak out of nowhere.
But, being asked just what this armor is, Renya had no other prepared answers on hand either.
Its basic material is more or less steel, and since it shouldn’t be a living creature, it’s not like I’m completely lying.
Due to Renya’s reply, which is probably still too far off the truth despite all his reasoning, the soldiers showed stiff smiles and didn’t try to approach them since then.
“I don’t know what would be the best way to address you, armor-san over there.” (Renya)
The called armor cooly looks down on Renya from above without undoing its crossed arms.
That was a natural outcome because Renya was crouching besides that armor. But, getting irritated by its behavior, Renya hit the armor’s shin with his fist.
Of course there’s no way for the armor to feel pain.
While causing dull banging sounds, Renya tried to ask the armor, thinking that he probably shouldn’t expect an answer,
“So, can’t you somehow grasp the hero's location after commanding a complete view of the enemy's army?” (Renya)
Looking down for a while at Renya, who isn’t about to stop hitting it while asking, the armor turned its face once more in the direction of the enemy army before long and clearly pointed at one point within the enemy army's array after slowly releasing its crossed arms.
While Renya, who certainly didn’t expect it to react, watches that spectacle in a daze, the point indicated by the armor emitted a flash of light as if it had eyes.
Even though he doesn’t really understand the true identity of that flash, Renya releases a spell with silent casting.
“
One long ray of lightning pierces the ground from the sky and clashes with the flash emitted from the alliance for an instant.
Alongside a thunderous roar, the allied forces and the surface of the city’s outer wall were struck by an impact to the point of making the vicinity shake.
The scattered flash shallowly scratches the surface of the wall and the aftermath of the lightning runs through the alliance's soldiers and makes some of them faint.
“Oh my… he really hates us, that rotten piece of shit…” (Renya)
Renya mutters as he grinds his teeth and unsheathes the katana at his waist while standing up.
Below him, meaning at the bottom of the wall, the soldiers in charge of the defense ran around with pale faces.
“W-What was that attack just now…?”
“Damn it! Even the aftermath was capable of damaging the outer wall, which had been reinforced with a barrier!”
“This is… this is the power of the hero…”
There is no threat as dreadful as someone that was reassuring as an ally turning into an enemy.
The soldiers of the Trident Principality were once again astonished by the hero's terrific power.
However, at the same time they are harboring another thought as well.
It’s the soldiers who saw their ally, Renya, displaying an attack that could rival the hero's tremendous might.
“I can’t believe it, you know… That man… he fucking defended against the hero’s attack.”
“Equal to the hero… is that a demon king?”
“This is… this is the power of the demon king…”
Usually Renya would have refuted the soldiers who were denouncing him by calling him a demon king while assisting with the strengthening of the wall, but on this occasion the situation doesn’t allow him to do so.
Restraining his desire to refute them, he starts his parallel magic formulae activation.
The spell he uses is just like before,
He makes eight lines of lightning converge and drives them into the area where the hero is most probably at.
Even though the number of sorcerers, who can fire this spell, which is listed under the highest-ranked spells of the wind attribute, eight times, on the human continent is unknown, it should be a number close to zero.
Watching the attack, which almost no one should be able to use, getting scattered by some kind of defense barrier around the hero and seeing the flash that had struck the wall previously, Renya feels slightly uncomfortable.
Assuming that the flash is the hero’s attack, the defense barrier that’s attached to him is very likely something that was activated by magicians inside the alliance in cooperation.
But not only is Renya's sorcery a cheat ability he was given by that little girl, but it's also something imbued with a huge amount of mana due to the mana enhancement training Renya continues to carry out at all times.
Even if 100 or 200 such sorcerers were to gather, Renya knows that his sorcery isn’t something that can be stopped by them.
Adding to that, it was accomplished easily. Furthermore, if you exclude the one that offset the hero’s attack, even the eight lightning strikes got blocked.
A thought from the emerald dragon reached Renya, who was staring at his hands that had previously released the spell while wondering Maybe I’m actually not all that great?
“So they are using some kind of trick after all?” (Renya)
Renya asked the emerald dragon to fly in circles above the city of Trident for the sake of having it watch how the war progresses from the sky.
In the eyes of such a dragon, a group of magicians, who would use the same spell all together, should appear odd.
“Is he using a strange ability again? Good grief, the guy hailed as a hero is annoying…” (Renya)
Superseding his own abilities, Renya describes the hero’s abilities as annoying.
It’s not difficult to predict that the hero would harbor almost the same impressions if he heard Renya.
According to the dragon, there are two types of subordination abilities, contract and creation.
As an ability, creation magic is superior to contract magic. In contrast to subordinate contract magic, which has various restrictions and an upper limit in number of contracts, subordinate creation magic seems to have either many or no troublesome limitations or contract number limits.
Due to the hero being a cheat existence, I can guess that he probably possesses a subordinate creation skill placed in the skills' superior ranks, Renya estimates.
Moreover, I guess it’s a cheat version that has no limits on the number of creations.
A line said by the archduchess at the meeting venue the other day revives in Renya’s mind.
“About this~, I think even the hero himself might not have realized it~. If he did~, I think that it would be normal to have a plan in regards to that, right~?” (Lydia)
I guess this is what she meant, Renya clicked his tongue with an expression as if he had swallowed a bitter bug.
Thinking about what would be the best thing to do with the alliance that will likely vanish like mist if he’s defeated, the hero unified all the alliance's soldiers under his will by making them into his subordinates.
It’s no different from saying that matters will be settled once that sole hero is defeated, but the 100,000 troops will move with one will, preventing the hero from being defeated.
So to speak, it’s something like dealing with a giant composed of cells called people.
Moreover, the hero, who is the vital spot, is the strongest among the cells forming said giant.
“Soldiers of Trident Principality! I leave the defense to you! Renya Kunugi is going to cut into the enemy army from this point onwards!” (Renya)
If possible, he wants to avoid killing the soldiers of the allied forces.
That notion didn’t change, but the situation has developed in a way that it doesn’t allow him to state with confidence that he won't have to kill many soldiers anymore.
How many do I have to kill to reach the hero?
As if shaking off such a thought, which he doesn’t want to think about, Renya jumps off the wall.
Chasing after him, the armor leaps down from the wall while still keeping its arms folded.
The Trident Principality's soldiers showed up with a bustle on top of the outer wall where Renya and the armor had just left.
Hiding behind massive shields and carrying large amounts of arrows in their hands, they are archers who will defend the city by firing arrows from atop the wall.
Freely using his knee and wind sorcery as a cushion, Renya soundlessly lands on the ground from the close-to-10-meter-high wall, but there’s not a chance that the armor can do the same.
It alights towards the ground while still having both arms crossed in front of its chest and both feet set apart at shoulder width.
Rather than landing on the ground alongside a considerable impact, it went down with a momentum of crashing into the ground, but, seemingly thanks to its original sturdiness, it endured the crash without any scratches.
However, it caused quite the loud sound. As if using that sound as a signal, the allied forces started their advancement against the city of Trident. In response the principality's army released countless arrows and spells from the city where they are secluding themselves.
This marked the start of the battle between the Trident Principality’s army and the allied forces led by the hero.